Well, I have just been reading all these lovely memories, perhaps you would like to hear this one of my beloved maternal Nanna.
She had a tough life, married at 20, her young husband already blind, they had 4 children 2 boys, 2 girls, my Mum was the second girl. They built up a successful business between them of a greengrocers shop, coal merchant & carrier with several horse & carts, bu then Grandpa died in the flu epidemic of 1918 agee 44, so there she was aged 41 with 4 children & the businesses to run & run them she did until her death at the age of 62. What do I remember the most about her. Her beautiful feather bed. sounds like a song, doesn't it "Grandma's feather bed"
When I was a tiny tot, it must have been about 1929/30 my Mum was ill after a miscarriage & had to go away to a convalesense home so I went to stay with Nan. The only place for me to sleep was with her & oh, this feather bed. I used to lie there cocooned in this bed in a lovely green & brass bedstead. I had great fun with this bedstead, I found I could unscrew the knobs on the top of the end posts. Opposite the end of the bed was the usual washstand, there being no bathrooms in those days. Nan would wash herself there in the morning, she was not very tall & the best way to describe her was plumply rounded, cuddly. She was getting dressed one morning when a little voice piped up "Oh, Nanna, what yards & yards of corserettes" They were not the usual pink corsets but very posh light grey linen & if I close my eyes I can still see her holding up,pulling them round herself. The family never let me forget that.
Would you believe all these years later I still have that feather bed but I had it made into huge square pillows that are still put to use for sitting on the floor.
Happy memories of a kind generous Nan, nobody went short of anything, many a familywho had a stuggle to make ends meet after loosing a husband or father in WW1 were grateful for the bag of vegetables she would find for them.
Meliora